1989 - Travels in Britain
Prologue and Preparations
In the middle of the year of 1989 the opportunity to travel to Britain, which I had so desired and dreamed about all my life, was finally offered. The offer came from my husband, Mac's, parents. It was their golden anniversary and they wanted their only son and his unknown family, to be with them on that occasion. Unfortunately, it was my younger son, Geoffrey's, Higher School Certificate year and also I had examinations for the University course which I had almost finished. So, rather jokingly, I suggested to my older son, Neil, that he go in our place. At the time, Neil was nineteen years old and had never travelled outside Australia. Somewhat to my surprise, he decided that he would go and so was born the travel bug in him. He decided to spend three weeks (all he had) travelling in Britain with a rail pass, attend his grandparents' golden wedding party and see the home of his ancestors. So little did he know of Britain at that time that on the night before he left he asked me where he should go and what he should see. As I have been reading guide books all my life I made up an itinerary for him which took in some interesting places in the order in which he could see them by train and he followed it slavishly. However, he managed to miss just about everything of interest I had included as he has no sense of direction. Nevertheless, he enjoyed his trip, saying that wherever you looked in Britain you could see something of interest.
Since that trip he has been to Russia, returned to Britain twice, been trekking in Nepal, bungee jumping and sky diving in New Zealand and cruising in the South Pacific.
Since we could not attend the golden wedding celebrations, Mac's parents offered to pay our fares and accommodation if we came later in the year. So as soon as Geoff's and my exams were finished, we acquired passports and took off for England. There is always a bit of a problem where Geoff is concerned because he is an insulin dependant diabetic and at that time had a rather exacting and rigid timetable for eating and injecting. This caused problems everywhere as it was not always possible in a strange place to find something suitable (i.e high in carbohydrate, low in sugar) for him to eat, and since he has to eat about every three hours, it made museums difficult, as many will not allow you to eat in them. However, there were no real , medical emergency type problems.
I had a small insurance policy which matured that year, so I was able to contribute to the experience by paying for us to have five days in London before heading to the midlands to Mac's parents, and a couple of nights b & b in the south west of England at the end of the trip. They paid for our airfares, which we tried to get as el cheapo as possible with Philippine Airlines and they paid for 6 weeks in a caravan park in Stourport on Severn. As we were travelling in winter, I had been a bit aghast at this, only having been accustomed to Australian style on-site caravans. (The sort with no insulation, hard bunks and a walk to the amenities block for shower and toilets). I was to be very agreeably surprised by the quality of British caravan sites. They also lent us their car, a Datsun Cherry for the duration. They, being old and becoming more infirm daily, had ceased using it themselves.
I decided to keep a diary of our travels as I felt it might well be the only overseas trip in my life and I know how quickly one forgets, even the major events of life.
I should note here that most of the photographs that accompany this record were taken before I realised that midwinter in England made for very dull and dark photographs if you only had a very basic Instamatic camera which used 100 speed film cartridges. Geoff realised this half way through and bought some very high speed film which gave a better result.
This then, is the journal of our first trip to England.
A Trip to Remember - Fulfillment of a Dream
(Pretentious, huh?)
Thursday, 23rd November, 1989
ix days to go. Having been told by the Diabetes Education people that Geoff would need a certificate of fitness to travel (which nobody had thought fit to mention before, travel agent or airline, and we had booked diabetic meals some nine months before) we got in touch with Philippine Airlines two days ago. They said yes, he would need one so we got in touch with Dr. Coles who agreed to supply a certificate, although he had never been called upon to do so before in his career. Geoff picked it up yesterday, photocopied it and sent it to the airline with a covering letter. Then today, all hell broke loose. If we had not said anything we would have been alright, but having said it, the airline seemed to think Geoff needed wheelchairs, doctors and goodness knows what else. They claimed we needed to fill in forms, i.e. the doctor would, or we would not be allowed to travel. Eventually, on our assurance that all he needed was a diabetic diet, they agreed to accept Dr. Coles' letter, providing we took it with us.
We ordered our traveller's cheques today, ($7799 or 3800 pounds) and obtained Mac's international driving permit. Tomorrow Mac picks up all the tickets and vouchers. Hope nothing screws up now. See what tomorrow brings.
Friday, 24th November, 1989.
ac picked up the tickets and vouchers. All seems in order. Geoff had a bad hypo at breakfast.
Saturday, 25th November, 1989
ent to Mum's for "Christmas" with Neil and Pat. Geoff had another hypo before morning tea. Hope it's just excitement. We need him compos just now. Cut down on insulin. Blood sugar quite high.
Sunday, 26th November, 1989.
inished packing. We made all Geoff's stuff into three packs to divide between us, with copies of Dr. Coles' letters. Charmaine came down to give Geoff her Christmas present. Two days to go!!
